Collected Fictions // A Handful of Houses by Ruben Alcolea

Collected Fictions //

A Handful of Houses edited by RubĂŠn A. Alcolea

Collected Fictions by Theo Neil Alger Blones / Jingxin Yang / Ruby Kang / Jacob Swaim / Arthur Yang / Joyce Jin / Jingjing Liu / Dhyan Sharma / Elizabeth Reeves / Zhu Cao / Shiyu Jin / Pablo Zarama

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

The Collected Fictions Project explores the blurry boundaries of our memory while thinking about architecture masterpieces. The role of photography in massively disseminating those works is clear, as it is also in trying to synthesize them with only a few and universally accepted shots. But photography is not only a tool to aseptically catalog and document the buildings, as it is also the perfect media to strength its virtues by a direct and sharp focus on its real values and why not, also fictional possibilities. Reality and fiction then merge and redefine what is the real essence of those buildings which have built the history of modern architecture. This publication is an academic production that compiles some of the research work for the elective theory seminar ‘Collected Fictions’, instructed by Rubén Alcolea at AAP Cornell University during the Spring Semester 2020, and completes the research initiated with the volumes “Collected Fictions: Some Masterpieces” (2017), and “Collected Fictions: A Mess of Libraries” (2018).

Collected Fictions: A Handful of Houses / edited by Rubén A. Alcolea 156 p. / 9x6 in / 15.24x22.86 cm / 2020 1. Architecture. 2. Photography. 3. Architectural Photography I. Alcolea, Rubén A., 1975Printed and bound in Ithaca, NY, US by Cornell Print Services © The authors and Editor © 2020 AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning. Cornell University All right reseved. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution and for a Non-Commercial Use. All material is compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but published without responsability for errors or omissions. The authors have included the sources and tried to contact copyright holders, but this was not possibe in all circumstances. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form without written permission from the editor. The opinions and statements of facts expressed in this volume are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the editor.

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Collected Fictions //

A Handful of Houses The Collected Fictions Project by Rubén A. Alcolea / Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi / Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier / Can Lis by Jørn Utzon / Casa Barragán by Luis Barragán / Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams / Case Study House 8 by Charles and Ray Eames / Casa no Butantã by Paulo Mendes da Rocha / Glass House by Phillip Johnson / Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry / Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer / Skyhouse by Koyonori Kikutake / Glass House by Lina Bo Bardi /

The Collected Fictions Project by Rubén A. Alcolea

The celebrated Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa addressed the audience in Melbourne in September 1993 about the importance and meaning of ‘fiction’. In his lecture, presented as Fiction: The Power of Lies, the writer reflected upon something that was very fundamental to him: the freedom of the imagination. He tried to define what fiction was in terms of literature. In fact, he stated, “novels do lie -they cannot help doing so-, but that is simply one part of the story. The other is that, through the lying, they reveal a curious truth, which can purely be expressed in a veiled and concealed fashion, masquerading as what it is not.”1 This creation of tales or imaginary stories, which sometimes are trusted as real, has been widely explored in written literature. The text requires the reader to recreate what it depicts, abstracting but also curating the story into something absolutely personal and intimate. It is in this translation from the text to our subconscious when the magic really happens and the fiction starts to reveal itself. The necessity of interpretation forces the writer to leave its vision somehow open and undefined, engaging an act of trust in the reader, and allowing multiple and simultaneous readings or interpretations. In a similar way, visual arts engage the viewer to be part of the universe of the artist. The work of art

1. Vargas Llosa, Mario, Fiction: The Power of Lies, ed. by Roy C. Boland (La Trobe University / 1993 Meredith Memorial Lecture, 1993), p. 1.

Collected Fictions

presents itself straighter, and both its optical direct perception and this lack of the ambiguities given by the text allow a less mediated conversation between the spectator and the artist. Nonetheless, no art as photography has provided such a deep exploration of the thresholds between reality and fiction. The invention of photography opened the door to the creation of curated realities, which had the ability to be presented as unfiltered translations of our real environment. In fact, since its origins, photographers have been trying to face the narrative of images to experiment and play with that boundary, guiding the viewer to believe that conceptual trap which enacts photography as a substitute for reality. The photographer and philosopher Jean Baudrillard expressed clearly this idea in his critical essay The Evil Demon of Images (1984). â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have arrived at a paradox regarding the image, our images, those which unfurl upon and invade our daily life-images whose proliferation, it should be noted, is potentially infinite, whereas the extension of meaning is always limited precisely by its end, by its finality; from the fact that images ultimately have no finality and proceed by total contiguity, infinitely multiplying themselves according to an irresistible epidemic process which no one today can control, our world has become truly infinite, or rather exponential by means of images...We have thus come to the paradox that these images describe the equal impossibility of the real and of the imaginary.â&#x20AC;?2

2. Baudrillard, Jean, The evil demon of images (Sydney: The Power Institute of Fine Arts / 1984 Mari Kuttna Memorial Lecture, 1985), p. 27.

This overlapping of the real and the imaginary takes place not only while we experience the photographs. Their effects endure over time, even longer than the control we have over our awareness. Partly because our memories are mostly built upon images, the paradox of that overlapping usually substitutes ‘what it is’ with ‘what we see’, and the curation of the memories of our past experiences starts building an innermost catalog of imagined images focused in our personal interests. The movie Memento (2000) by Christopher Nolan examines the extreme assumption of a sort of memory made of just a handful of images.3 The continuous amnesia of the main character strenghtens him to use photographs to record his actions, forcing him to trust the belief and the images, even if some of them were fabricated and distorted to try to give meaning to his actions. This new

Fictioned Viipuri Library by Alvar Alto. Fiction produced by Jeannette Pang. Originally published in Collected Fictions: A Mess of Libraries (2018).

3. Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, 1h 53m, starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano. Screenplay “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan.

Collected Fictions

and self-made reality gradually substitutes his real past with a curated and fictitious conscience. The photographic dissemination of architecture, and particularly when addressing well known buildings or key masterpieces, evolves into a stand-alone category which necessarily alters, in a minor or major extent, the personal and non-fictional perception of the space on experiencing the real space or building. It is in that precise moment when the role played by photography becomes crucial in shaping our visual memory. Photographs become not just plain descriptions aimed to document or show space configurations of material qualities. Photography may rather be considered an effective and powerful weapon which directly hits our subconscious with bursts of images. They are immediately considered as harmless, but define our perception and become The Collected Fictions Project

Fictioned Sainte GeneviĂ¨ve by Henri Labrouste. Fiction produced by Poyen Hsieh. Originally published in Collected Fictions: A Mess of Libraries (2018).

the only approach to the built work. It is the perfect media to reinforce the buildings’ virtues by a direct and sharp focus on some real characteristics and to point also at its many fictional possibilities. Photography opens the door to a new and spurious world, a place where voluntarily and slightly distorted buildings play a somewhat similar but radically different role. The definition of what fiction is has been easily applied to literature, where that term is frequently used. Although it is also commonly addressed by other arts. Rare is the occasion when we hear about a fiction in close relation to built architecture. It may be the intrinsically real nature of buildings what makes the idea of pointing at their fictional qualities to sound unnatural. But in a way, once the interpretation of the space is introduced –specially once the sensibility of the user enters into the equation– the expanded richness of even banal projects can surpass all of our expectations. So, what defines the real building? How clearly can a building be defined as having a single reality when it has by definition a very mutable nature in terms of light,

Fictioned Ville Savoye by Le Corbusier. Fiction produced by Jorge Alberto Muñoz. Originally published in Collected Fictions: Some Masterpieces (2017).

Collected Fictions

temperature, or even aging? How close does the real built object relate to the imagined and abstract project that was once designed by the architect? It is not only a phenomenological question, as it may constitute a more radical statement, the one in which the real built architecture becomes only the non-complete and nonliteral translation of what the ideal project â&#x20AC;&#x201C;as an ideaâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; wanted to become. The Collected Fictions Project explores precisely the blurry boundaries of our memory in understanding and approaching to architecture masterpieces through some of its very well known shots. Reality and fiction merge and redefine what is the real essence of the very well known buildings which define the history of our modern architecture. Some photographs, specially of major masterpieces, are found in every history or theory book, and it takes us just a quick glance to take the building for granted, amplifying our trust on what we consider well established icons. In many occasions, the distortions presented here are evident and the trick precisely points to a possibility of a building which The Collected Fictions Project

Fictioned Casa del Fascio by Giuseppe Terragni. Fiction produced by Ottavia Boletto. Originally published in Collected Fictions: Some Masterpieces (2017).

shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have existed. In others, the subtlety of the transformation enables us to react with the doubt and deeply question our idiosyncratic records. In any case, all of them express its own truth and, far from lying, prove the validity of photography to define a parallel expanded and fabricated reality, free from the restraints of our material being. This book compiles some of the Fictions produced through the elective arch 3308/3608 Architecture and Photography, instructed during several semesters at AAP Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and specifically the one developed during the Spring of 2020. These compilations are part of an ongoing investigation into the power of fictional photography in a way to substitute our visual memories. The exercise started dealing with major masterpieces and was compiled in a previous volume, Collected Fictions: Some Masterpieces (2017).4 In that occasion, the trick was somehow more evident but, at the same time, really powerful. The second volume, Collected Fictions: A Mess of Libraries (2018),5 dealt with a handful of

Fictioned Maison Le Lac by Le Corbusier (above) and original (below). Fiction produced by Jingxin yang.

Collected Fictions

buildings which all shared a common program: the library. The valuable privilege for those buildings to contain the books –which embrace the accumulation of human knowledge and the expansion of our imagination beyond its real nature– contributed to make those experiments quite intriguing. For this occasion, the fictions are restricted to single houses, and only the ones that famous architects designed for themselves. The use of the domestic space to generate new universes becomes richer once the buildings the fictions are created from are well known, and perhaps that is why some of the resulting fictional projects compete in character with the real ones. That, of course, comes after the understanding that it is in the nature of the domestic space where the human self really expands its influence beyond his or her physical body. In that respect, the creation of fictional single houses imply also the existence of an alternative figure architect, imaginary but as powerful as the real one.

The Collected Fictions Project

Original Viipuri Library by Alvar Aalto; Sainte Geneviève by Henri Labrouste; Ville Savoye by Le Corbusier; and Casa del Fascio by Giuseppe Terragni.

4. Alcolea, Rubén A. (Ed), Collected Fictions: Some Masterpieces (Ithaca, NY: AAP Cornell University, 2017). 5. Alcolea, Rubén A. (Ed), Collected Fictions: A Mess of Libraries (Ithaca, NY: AAP Cornell University, 2018).

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re lucky you live long enough to see the good results of your bad ideas. Robert Venturi

Vanna Venturi House

by Robert Venturi Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 1959-1964

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Site Plan

Robert Venturi, Philadelphia in 1991 Photo by George Widman/Associated Press

Vanna Venturi House Collected Fictions

by Robert Venturi Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 1959-1964

The Vanna Venturi House is perhaps one of the most iconic postmodern buildings. Taking more than six years to design, it incorporated many architectural instruments that modernists were fond of such as a simple façade, and horizontal ribbon windows. However, Venturi also chose to introduce ornamentation into the design–– a gabled roof with an arch framed entryway stripped of their function; a choice which became a catalyst for the Postmodern movement. This playful nature coincides with his antimodernist polemic book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture which he was writing at the time, in which many ideas became embodied within the house itself. He states, “I like elements which are hybrid rather than ‘pure’ compromising rather than ‘clear’ distorted rather than ‘straightforward’.... I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. I include the non sequitur and proclaim duality,” 1 a sentiment which is reflected in the contradictory composition of elements present within the house: a ground floor without pilotis, a pitched roof, a central hearth, and especially a monumental façade.

1. Venturi, Robert, and Vincent Scully. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, p. 14

Collected Fictions

Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi

Collected Fictions

Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi

Collected Fictions

These playful contradictions disrupt the hegemonic Modernist aesthetics at the time. The most apparent of which are the conflict of scales, where its monumentality becomes antithetical to an individual house. The monumental front façade references the dualities of Michelangelo’s Porta Pia with its distinct separation between front and back. Within, “on one level, it goes nowhere and is whimsical; at another level, it is like a ladder against a wall from which to wash the high window and paint the clerestory. The change in scale of the stair on this floor further contrasts with that change of scale in the other direction at the bottom.” 2 The iconic facade is a historical allusion to the western canon, yet also embodies a childlike imagination of the vernacular. Venturi not only plays with physcial scale, but historical and cultural as well. Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi

2. Venturi, Robert, and Vincent Scully. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, p. 188

Facade, Photo courtesy of the architects1975 (left) and fiction (right)

Exterior 1, Photo by courtesy of the architects,1975 (left) and fiction (right)

Exterior 2, Photo courtesy of the architects,1975 (left) and fiction (right)

Original Cross Section (up) and fiction (down)

Original Model (up) and fiction (down)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Theo Neil Alger Blones

This fiction wants to emphasize the monumental and historical allusion that Venturi references. By filling in the break of the gable, as well as removing the small chimney, the monumental faรงade became extremely emphasized. This mechanism is repeated in the back and sides of the house as well in order to increase this disparity between the scale of the human and the house. Through these moves, there is a notable emphasis in the blank space of the facade.

Original Facade (up) and fiction (down)

Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi

Original Exterior (up) and fiction (down)

The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for a window. Le Corbusier

Villa Le Lac

by Le Corbusier Lake Geneva, Corseaux, Switzerland 1923-1924

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Le Corbusier with his mother in Villa â&#x20AC;&#x153;Le Lacâ&#x20AC;?, 1959. Photo by Yves Debraine

Site Plan

Villa Le Lac Collected Fictions

by Le Corbusier Lake Geneva, Corseaux, Switzerland 1923-1924

Completed in 1924, Villa “Le Lac” is among Le Corbusier’s earliest experiments to envision a new modern lifestyle through the machine of architecture. Le Corbusier designed this home for his parents. Already conceived in it is Le Corbusier’s visions that later developed into the famous manifesto—“The Five Points of a New Modern Architecture” and the Villa Savoye. Le Corbusier had proposed an long linear house by the lake before he finally acquired the narrow land at the east end of Lake Geneva in Corseaux, Switzerland. The house situated in between two distinctive conditions. While the north side is protected from the street by a 2-meter-high wall, the south side is facing to an open lake view with mountains as backdrop. The home is rather simplistic with maximum spatial comfort. It proposes a minimal way of single family organization that could serve as precedent for Le Corbusier’s design of Unite D’habitation.

Collected Fictions

Most evident among all Le Corbusier’s idea for a modern home in Villa “Le Lac” is the construction of long horizontal windows. The ribbon-like windows runs on both long facade of the house, connecting the resident to distinctive panoramic views—one of the untamed nature and one of the cultivated garden. The domestic programs oscillated in between the two views with kitchen and laundry room on the north side, master bedroom the south side. The living room represents the highlight of the modern home with view to both sides. The unobstructed view raises a new perspective on framing nature that living quarter is only a protected segment of the nature but never an isolated one. A sense of horizontal visual transparency is facilitated by the infusing natural light. Living room, bedroom and bathroom are always filled with sunlight throughout the day, as Le Corbusier said “the rising sun is caught by an oblique transom and completes its cycle in front of our house during the day.”1 In each part of the house, the view extend beyond the boundary of the facades, which acts only as skins without load-bearing constrains. Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier

1. “Villa ‘Le Lac’ Le Corbusier.” Villa “Le Lac” Le Corbusier. Accessed April 29, 2020. https:// www.lescouleurs.ch/en/ journal/posts/villa-le-lacle-corbusier-the-holein-the-wall-and-otherexperiments/.

Collected Fictions

Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier

Collected Fictions

Villa Le Lac’s charm never faded with the passage of time. It remained as an important breakthrough of residential housing typology in the history of architecture. Fondation Le Corbusier, founded in 1968 out of “the architect’s desire to avoid the dispersion of his works and archives”, provides restoration and regular maintenance of the project.2 Sketches, drawing, models, and other original material are all well organized and published to commemorates the masterpiece. It remained as a source of inspiration and reverence for practicing and prospective architects.

Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier

2. “Information”. Villa “Le Lac” Le Corbusier. http:// www.villalelac.ch/en/ information

Collected Fictions

Contrasting to the continuity between the interior and surrounding landscape, a moment of tranquility and privacy can be found in the garden. A table extends out from the stone wall separating the garden from the lake. Without direct exposure, one could hear the sound of the water while resting in a private garden. Instead of horizontal transparency, the garden encourages a vertical connection to the nature. The enclosure of free standing walls around the garden opens up view only to the sky. The verticality of tree in the garden further extends the vision upward.

Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier

Lake-side Facade, Photo by Patrick Moser, current view (top) and fiction (bottom)

Exterior Views, Photos by Foundation Le Corbusier (top) and fictions (bottom)

Model by Atalas of Interiors (top) and fiction (bottom)

Garden view, Photo by Foundation Le Corbusier (top) and fictions (bottom)

Sketches by Le Corbusier (top) and fiction (bottom)

Interior Space, Photo by XXXX,1975 (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Jingxin Yang

Villa “Le Lac” is the initial experimental ground of Le Corbusier’s “Five Points of New Architecture” though most evidently presented by his later work — Villa Savoye. In this house Le Corbusier designed for his mom, he realized the horizontal window for the first time. The continuous window provides full daylight to the interior and new way of framing the natural landscape. This project chooses to emphasize the horizontality of window in two ways: 1) elongate the ribbon window on the lake side to the full extend of the facade; 2) changing the individual windows on the street side to ribbon window as well. These edits extend connection between the interior and the exterior beyond the singular openness between the living room and the lake. The entire building, from the cross-sectional perspective, could be seen as a roof floating above the ground. Besides, the opening on the garden wall is closed to create a vertical experience of nature that is opposite to the horizontal transparency. The two thin pilotis on the east side and the opening on the garden wall facing the lake are also removed to focus all attention on the ribbon window.

Axon and Plan, original drawings (top) and fictions (bottom)

Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier

I have made a sculpture … you will never be finished with it – when you pass around it or see it against the sky… something new goes on all the time… together with the sun, the light and the clouds, it makes a living thing. Jorn Utzon

Can Lis House by JĂ¸rn Utzon Mallorca, Spain 1971-1972

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

JĂ¸rn Utzon with architectural model

Can Lis Collected Fictions

by JĂ¸rn Utzon Mallorca, Spain 1971-1972

During his work on the Sydney Opera House, JĂ¸rn Utzon visited mallorca in 1966 and decided to build his summer residence on the southern cliff of the island. The house is constructed with the concrete which is painted white to stand out against its surroundings. The four major cubic blocks sit at similar orientations, allowing straight fixed views of the ocean outside. These blocks, which contain, from west to east, the kitchen, the living room, the bedrooms, and the guest suite, are connected by walls and courtyards. The architect also designed and sculpted most of the furniture. The material quality of the interior and exterior of the building allows a continuous reading of the space and creates stark boundaries between the house and nature.

Collected Fictions

Can Lis by JÃ¸rn Utzon

Collected Fictions

Can Lis by JÃ¸rn Utzon

Collected Fictions

Can Lis by JÃ¸rn Utzon

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Ruby Kang

The Can Lis House is characterized by its material starkness against the natural surroundings. The smooth exterior of the building stands out against the rough seaside cliff it sits on. The square blocks seemingly emerge from the forest, facing straight towards the ocean. The multitude of openings and columns throughout the house creates various private areas and courtyards, while the regularity of views and the materiality which flows seamlessly from the exterior into the interior space connects these spaces.

Can Lis by JĂ¸rn Utzon

Throughout my work I have always strived to achieve serenity, but one must be on guard not to destroy it by the use of an indiscriminate palette. Luis Barragรกn

Casa Barragรกn by Luis Barragรกn Mexico DF, Mexico 1902-1988

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Luis Barragรกn at his home in Mexico City, 1902-1988

Street level Plan

Casa Barragán Collected Fictions

by Luis Barragán Mexico DF, Mexico 1902-1988

“The lessons to be learned from the unassuming architecture of the village(s)...of my country have been a permanent source of inspiration...the whitewashed walls, the peace to be found in patios and orchards, the colorful streets, the humble majesty of the village squares surrounded by shady open corridors.”1 The house of Luis Barragán is situated in the old neighborhood of Tacubaya in Mexico City. It abuts the sidewalk, treating the apartments and neighboring houses as peers. It does not stick out; in fact, the exterior facades of the house can be described as austere. Luis Barragán’s approach to architecture is very emotive. He does not design to impress, rather he crafts spaces and atmospheres that can be felt. He talks about silence in the sense that the environments he designs are not loud. They allow for self discovery. The beauty of his architecture, including that of his own house, is “made to last of solid volumes and simple surfaces, intimate spaces, discreet and yet refined natural materials, and inner patios that frame the firmament.” He always incorporates his own perception of beauty, which comes from his experience of Mexican culture and religion growing up.

1. Alfaro, Alfonso, Daniel GArza Usabiaga, and Juan Palomar. Luis Barragan His House. Mexico City: RM, 2011.

Collected Fictions

Casa Barragรกn by Luis Barragรกn

Collected Fictions

Luis Barragán, Casa Barragán, Mexico DF, 1948, Living Room

His use of color throughout the house works in tandem with volume, light, texture, and whiteness to guide one’s experience of the public and private rooms, transitional spaces, and the outdoor garden. These colors bleed out into the exterior courtyard garden meant to be explored and discovered, to find peace in amongst color, light, and straight lines. In another reality, the interior of the house and exterior courtyard is wiped clean of color to leave a series of white surfaces and volumes that completely alters the feeling of the spaces. Alternatively, the facade facing the street is activated wiith the same pink seen on the walls of some interior spaces. The house then is no longer discreet, rather it stands out in the neighborhood. Louis Kahn said after visiting the house, “His house is not merely a house but House itself. Anyone could feel at home. Its material is tradition; its character eternal.” Casa Barragán by Luis Barragán

Facade abutting street, (left) and fiction (right)

Interior Vesituble, (left) and fiction (right)

Courtyard, (left) and fiction (right)

Living Room, 1948 (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Jacob Swaim

The emotive power of Luis Barragán’s design of his own house in the Tacubaya neighborhood of Mexico City lies in his use of vibrant colors and how they compliment the expressive lighting conditions in the different spaces. This fiction explores how the stripping of color from the interior and exterior surfaces alters the feeling of the spaces. Much of the house is already white, but some key surfaces and artwork provide splashes of vibrant pinks and yellows. In the entry hall, for instance, the space is white besides the right wall and the wall with the door, which is pink. In the fiction, the right wall is white. Some of the garden walls are pink. In the fiction, they are also white. The exterior of the house is discreet, but that changes in the fiction when the pink is introduced, sort of misleading it with the Gilardi House.

Casa Barragán by Luis Barragán

A house must return to nature what it took from it. Amancio Williams

Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams Mar del Plata, Argentina 1943-1945

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Amancio Williams, 1913-1989

Site Plan

Casa sobre el arroyo Collected Fictions

by Amancio Williams Mar del Plata, Argentina 1943-1945

Casa sobre el arroyo (the Bridge House), is one of the first and only built works of the Argentinian architect Amancio Williams. Upon graduation from architecture school in 1941, he has created numerous prospective designs, but his clients are few. His father Alberto Williams, a well-known composer, commissioned this house to be built on his property in Mar del Plata. The house, designed in 1943, is a modernistic, small concrete building straddling the stream. The house is conceived as a synthesis of three major geometrical gestures: the curved line of the bridge, the horizontal volume of the living areas and the plane of the terrace. It represents the meeting point of the two sectors of the land divided by the creek, a human artifact that seeks harmony with the surrounding landscape.

While on the outside the house appears as a simple concrete volume spanning the creek, on the inside it contains an arch that dramatically takes up the whole width of the house, serving as a literal bridge straddling the creek. Its curvature is represented to be the perfect inverse of that of the creek valley. The two entrances of the house coincide with the bridge abutments, and two symmetrical stairs that immediately reveal themselves upon entry follow the top of the curve, leading up to the middle of the terrace. This area occupies the whole length of the house (27m), more than of which is covered under the vaulted volumes beneath the bridge and is lit by a series of Le Corbuserian horizontal windows that wrap around the house.

Collected Fictions

The main material of the house is reinforced concrete, which was even studied and tested in a lab prior to construction. The concrete forming the skin of the building was treated chemically. The interiors were almost entirely finished with wood boards, preassembled in a nearby woodshop, then dismantled and reassembled on site. While the geometrical gestures of the house are simple. The conceptual and spatial experiences they provide are intense. Conceptually, the terrace atop the mass of the house is a duplicate of the living space below. It is supported and guarded by identical railing beams, and occupied by “furnishings” for the elements. As the bridge bulges through the living space and reaches for the sky, the terrace becomes a living room for nature, held up by an arch that’s contained in a human’s domestic realm. Experientially, as the house literally contains the bridge, one traverses the thresholds of nature and domestic realm back and forth four times—ascending and descending along the curve and emerging and submerging from the plane—before final appearing at the other bank. The Bridge House provides a little more than the functionalities of a house. Within the humble footprint, it juggles between functions and metaphors, playing out the duality of a living space. It is a landscape device that sequence spaces, folds experience and negotiates the boundaries between nature and man. Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams

Collected Fictions

Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams

Collected Fictions

Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams

Concept Sketch, original (left) and fiction (right)

Section, original (left) and fiction (right)

Roof Plan, original (left) and fiction (right)

Floor Plan, original (left) and fiction (right)

70 Photograph, original (left) and fiction (right)

Photograph, original (left) and fiction (right)

Axonometric, original (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Arthur Yang

The fiction focuses on two important aspects of the Bridge House. The first is the simple and elegant geometric composition of the house: conceived as a synthesis of three geometric elements—the arc of the bridge, the horizontal volume of the interior space, and the plane of the roof terrace—the house has a strong sectional quality. The second is the house’s structural conception as a harmonious, truly three-dimensional construction: through a series of vertical partitions, the arc of the bridge supports the flat floor slab and the surrounding railing beams, which carry the cantilever, diverting the weight of the slab and the thrust of the bridge to the foundations. This fiction works to address these two aspects by altering the sectional relationship of the geometrical elements—starting with the famous concept sketch of Amancio Williams—hence altering their structural relationship. The volume of the house is lowered down the ground, taking the arch into its volume. What once supported the floor now supports the roof, while two ends of the house seemingly touch the ground. The stairs going up the curve now lead to the terrace. A long horizontal opening is cut in the roof to provide access. Additional railing beams are added around the edge of the terrace, thus thickening the roof and suggesting it as a duplication of the lower living volume. While the mass of the house is simplified from the outside, the interior space becomes dramatized as the arch, now lends both of its surfaces to the interior space, stepping up to the roof while simontaenelsy becoming an inhabitable vault. As a result. the spatial experience intensifies. While the gestures of change are simple, the conceptual and experiential change are immense. Casa sobre el arroyo by Amancio Williams

The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of its inhabitants. Charles and Ray Eames

Case Study House 8

by Charles and Ray Eames Santa Monica, California, USA 1949-1988

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Site Plan

Ray and Charles Eames in LA, 1946.

Case Study House 8 Collected Fictions

by Charles and Ray Eames Santa Monica, California, USA 1949 -1988

The Case Study No. 8 is also known as the Eames House as it served as the home and studio of husband-and-wife design pioneers Charles and Ray Eames. The house is situated in Los Angeles on the top of a cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Charles and Ray began designing the house in 1945 for the Los Angeles’ Arts and Architecture Magazine’s Case Study House Program. Initiated by John Entenza, the publication’s editor, the program was meant to showcase the use of new materials and technologies developed during World War II. The house was intended to be made of prefabricated materials that would not interrupt the site, be easy to build, and exhibit a modern style.1 Case Study House No.8 consists of three spaces in one structure, a licing space, a working space, and an enclosed patio. The house is nestled between a hillside and a row of eucalyptus trees.

1. Perez, Adelyn. “AD Classics: Eames House/ Charles and Ray Eames.” ArchDaily. 28 June 2010.

Collected Fictions

Case Study House 8 by Charles and Ray Eames

Collected Fictions

Case Study House 8 by Charles and Ray Eames

Collected Fictions

The Eames House is a beautiful continutation of space. Private and public spaces are not strictly enforced and there are no major divisions between the home and studio. A retaining concrete wall and simple steel frame are used as the structure of the house. The steel frame was composed of standard components and was then filled with different solid, translucent, and transparent colored panels to emulate a Mondrian painting. The design was largely influenced by how light changes in the interior throughtout the day. Case Study House 8 by Charles and Ray Eames

Axon of Structure (left) and fiction (right)

Exterior Elevation (up) and fiction (down)

Exterior Space, Photo by John Zacherle (left) and fiction (right)

Original Sketch (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Joyce Jin.

The original design contains two seperate volumes connected by the famous exterior garden. The fiction aims to create a more continuous space as described by the architects themselves. By enclosing the exterior portion, the character of the volumes change. The modular construction of the Eames House makes this fiction probable and highlights the exact intention of the original concept.

Original Plans (left) and fiction (right)

Original Sketch (left) and fiction (right)

Case Study House 8 by Charles and Ray Eames

Architecture could be anything and its interpretations are limitless. Architecture does not desire to be functional, it wants to be opportune. Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Casa no ButantĂŁ

by Paulo Mendes da Rocha SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil 1964-1967

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Site Plan

Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Photo by Adrian Gaut

Casa no Butantã Collected Fictions

by Paulo Mendes da Rocha São Paulo, Brazil 1964-1967

Submerged in the built-up terrain and the exuberant vegetations, Casa no Butantã articulates the expression of exposed concrete and gravitation, marked as one of Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s most representative projects. Built for Rocha himself and his sister, the project consists of two almost identical constructions adjacent to each other. While the main floor slab is supported by loadbearing walls and columns, sixteen transverse beams of the roof slab advance 5.5 meters in cantilever on both sides, the flat c-shape roof wrap the main structure with protection but also allowing for openness.1

1. Fracalossi Igor, “Architecture Classics: House in Butantã / Paulo Mendes da Rocha and João de Gennaro”, Arch Daily, March 12, 2014. https://www.archdaily. com.br/br/01-181073/ classicos-da-arquiteturacasa-no-butanta-slashpaulo-mendes-da-rochae-joao-de-gennaro?ad_ medium=gallery#

Collected Fictions

Casa no ButantĂŁ by Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Collected Fictions

While the ground floor mainly functions as the garage, the main space on the second floor are partitioned into different zones. Two long open zones on the sides are allotted to sharing space, with light coming from the side windows. These windows occupy almost the full length and height of the second-floorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s facade, infusing the sharing space with fresh air and sufficient light. The space at centre are partitioned into private rooms, gaining natural light from several skylights.

Casa no ButantĂŁ by Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Collected Fictions

Casa no ButantĂŁ by Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Exterior Space, Original (left) and Fiction (right)

Original Plans (left) and Fiction (right)

Interior, Original (left) and Fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Jingjing Liu

Among the lots of projects designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, the idea of counter-gravitation has been iterated constantly. With elaborate consideration towards minimal structure and rough material, he is able to realize the idea of ‘floating heaviness’. In this project, the original structure consists barely of 4 columns vertically. With the second floor and the roof cantilevering out, the whole building can be read as a floating massing. This fiction mainly deconstructs the concept of floating as a way to better understand and appreciate the original design. By extending the railing walls of the second floor to the ground and transforming them into load-bearing structure, the sense of openness and floating heaviness are grounded into a rather enclosed and generic one. Based on the fictional walls, solid columns are added at the second floor by the window as a continuation of the walls, interrupting the mullion-free views of the living room space.

Interior, Original (up) and Fiction (down)

Original Cross Section (up) and fiction (down)

Casa no Butantã by Paulo Mendes da Rocha

I call myself a traditionalist, although I have fought against tradition all my life. Philip Johnson

Glass House

by Philip Johnson New Canaan, Connecticut, USA 1947-1949

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

Philip Johnson in CT, 2002. Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Site Plan, 1947. Drawing by Philip Johnson

Glass House Collected Fictions

by Philip Johnson New Canaan, Connecticut 1947-1949

In 1947, Philip Johnson curated an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art for the work of Mies van der Rohe, where he encountered Mies’ proposal for the Farnsworth House. Johnson was immediately taken by the idea of a house enclosed only by a delicate line of glazing, and spent the next two years frantically designing and constructing the Glass House on his 47-acre estate in New Canaan, Connecticut; the architect frequented the Glass House as a weekend retreat for 58 years until his death in 2005.1 The Glass House demonstrates a series of ideas that exist in stark contrast to the Farnsworth House. The latter is fundamentally a celebration of modernism; Mies precisely details an asymmetrical composition of interior and exterior spaces, culminating in a floating glass volume lifted off its site on wide-section pilotis, a feat only achievable by the modern building technology of industrial materials—namely, steel and concrete.2 The Glass House, conversely, proposes a strictly symmetrical composition: the steel frame that makes up the house’s façade support large glass panels with minimal structure,

1. Mark Lamster, The Man in the Glass House (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 2018), 213-6. 2. Fritz Neumeyer and Mark Jarzombek, The Artless Word (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1994), pp. 47–50.

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South-eastern corner of the Glass House, view from the approach.

Collected Fictions

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Eastern facade of the Glass House, view of the entrance.

Glass House by Philip Johnson

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Glass House. Plan with Elevations

Plan and Elevations, 1947. Drawing by Philip Johnson.

Collected Fictions

North-eastern corner of the Glass House, view of the site.

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but also carries a classical sense of proportion.3 Within this frame, the inserted cylindrical volume abstractly divides the open plan’s spaces, but also underscores the axiality of the design. Rather than a floating volume, the house fully engages with the earth, and the structure’s industrial materials do not reject classical building methods, instead intersecting and uniting with the masonry construction of the house’s podium and cylindrical volume. Through the Glass House’s negotiation of modern expressions and classical principles, Johnson positions himself as a unifying figure between the revolutionary ideals of modernity and the historical traditions of antiquity. By fully inhabiting the Glass House, he allows the architecture to take on a performative quality, not only advocating a particular way of building, but an image of modern life4—one set in an architecture that champions the technical and aesthetic innovations of the present but is also deeply rooted in the classical traditions of the past.

Glass House by Philip Johnson

3. Nicolai Ouroussoff, “Through a Glass, Clearly, a Modernist’s Questing Spirit”, New York Times, July 6, 2007. 4. Michael Sorkin, Exquisite Corpse, (London: Verso, 1991), pp. 7–10.

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Southern facade of the Glass House, view of the side entrance.

Collected Fictions

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Interior of the Glass House, view of the living and dining spaces.

Glass House by Philip Johnson

South-eastern corner, Photo by Michael Biondo, 2017 (left) and fiction (right)

Eastern facade, Photo by Michael Biondo, 2017 (left) and fiction (right)

106 Southern facade, Photo by Michael Biondo, 2017 (left) and fiction (right)

Site with brick house facing, Photo by Peter Aaron, 2017 (left) and fiction (right)

Interior space, Photo by Julius Schulman, 2006 (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Dhyan Sharma

This project presents a fictional narrative of Philip Johnson’s Glass House that aims to recontextualize its historical significance. Johnson inhabited the house himself, presenting an image of modernity in everyday life; arguably as a result the building is one of the most iconic modernist works of architecture. The fiction instead attempts to more closely align the house with classical design principles. Two major changes were made: (1) most, significantly, the brick cylinder was placed along the design’s central entryway axis. This creates a symmetrical composition, undermining the modernist expression of the open plan, and stiffens the facade of the house into something more monumental; (2) the house’s brick podium was lowered, removing the steps leading to the entrace. This more closely connects the house to the earth.

Glass House. Plan with Elevations

Original plan and elevations (left) and fiction (right)

Glass House by Philip Johnson

Glass House. Plan with Elevations

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Architecture should be an indecipherable collage of time and place, it should not yearn for timelessness. Frank Gehry

Gehry Residence

by Frank Gehry Santa Monica, California, USA 1977-1994

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

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Site Plan

Frank Gehry in NY, 2003. Photo by Justin Ray

Gehry Residence Collected Fictions

by Frank Gehry Santa Monica, California, USA 1977-1994

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The Gehry Residence in Santa Monica, California is an example of seamless collision between architecturlal styles. In 1970 Gehry purchased a property occupied by a 1920’s Dutch colonial style home. When designing an addition to better meet his families personal needs, he wished that there be no abrupt distinction between old and new when looking at or circulating through the home. Though he added new structure on three sides of the existing house, the juxtaposition between old and new is quieted by his use of a single material. This design was incredibly well received by other residents of the neighborhood, paying homage to the traditional nature of the other homes with a “subtle note of contemporary style”. 1

1. Gehry, Frank O., Yoshio Futagawa, and Yukio Futagawa. Frank O. Gehry: Gehry Residence Santa Monica, California, U.S.A., 1977-78, 199194. Tokyo: ADA Edita, 2015.

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Collected Fictions

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Gehry clad the entire home with corrugated metal. This design decision creates a homogeneity that stretches beyond basic materiality. It is almost impossible to seperate old from new in elevation. Had Gehry instead chosen to maintain the existing facade of the 1920’s home, there would have been a harsh visual clash that would have disallowed for our understanding of the building to be a single seamless structure. In that scenario, Gehry would have failed to achieve his goal of an “indecipherable collage of time and place”.

Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry

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Collected Fictions

In these plans one can see the footprint of the existing Dutch colonial home indicated by hatched cut lines. Without this drawing technique, it is almost impossible to isolate existing from addition. In most cases, exterior deck spaces occupy the intermittent space between old and new. Living spaces are contained within the original structure. The kitchen/ dining area is the only room that lies in this intermediate zone, encased by the walls of the new addition. One might expect that there be a harsh distinction between old and new, however, Gehry successfully disallows for this to occur through his use of a single material and regular/nonintrusive geometries. Though constructed and designed in different architectural ages, the difference in formal language is almost indecipherable.

Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry

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Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry

Exterior Space, Photo by Tim Street-Porter, 2012 (left) and fiction (right)

118 Facade, Photo by Liao Yusheng, 2010 (left) and fiction (right)

Kitchen, Photo by Liao Yusheng, 2010 (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Elizabeth Reeves

These fictions show what the home might look like if constructed of just a single material. It was meant to understand how the home might be understood differently when the experience was less impacted by the collision of old and new. Gehryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention with the house was to highlight an incredibly intense juxtaposition between old and new, amplified by the different material and building styles. By creating a fiction that suggests just one material be carried through the design of the house, one is able to understand the house as a singular entitiy rather than two parts that make a whole. No longer is the house part deconstructivist, part Dutch colonial, but rather an indecipherable collage, paying homage to each style. 119

Original Model (left) and fiction (right)

Original Elevations (left) and fiction (right)

Original Floor Plans (left) and fiction (right)

Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry

My work is not about “form follows function,” but “form follows beauty” or, even better, “form follows modernity”. Oscar Niemeyer

Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 1951

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

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Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro, 1950. Photo by Kurt Hutton

Sketch

Site Plan

Das Canoas House Collected Fictions

by Oscar Niemeyer Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 1951

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Das Canoas House was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1951 as his family house. It is located in Canoas, in Barra de Tijuca, a surburb of Rio de Janeiro. The house sits on a slope of the hill overlooking the bay. The project is considered one of the most significant examples of modern architecture in Brazil and is well recognized by specialists in art history as a sythesis of modern architecture and authorial selfcreation that flourished in Europe and in America. The house is a fusion of organic and mimalist architecture. Although the geometry of the house is curvilinear and irregular in modern architecture theory, it still obeys the formal purity of modernity. As Oscar designed the house, he said: “My concern was to project the residence freely and to adapt it to the unevenness of the field without modification, making it into curves, so the nature could enter them without separation or departure from the straight line.”1

Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer

1. Finotti, Leonardo. Oscar Niemeyer. 1A. reimpressão da 1a. edição de 2016. Santos, SP, Brazil: Productora Brasileira de Arte Cultura, 2017.

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Oscar Niemeyer, Des Canoas House, Rio de janeiro, 1951, Front View

Collected Fictions

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Oscar Niemeyer, Des Canoas House, Rio de janeiro, 1951, Aerial View

Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer, Des Canoas House, Rio de janeiro, 1951, Side View

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Oscar Niemeyer, Des Canoas House, Rio de janeiro, 1951, Lower floor

Collected Fictions

Oscar Niemeyer, Des Canoas House, Rio de janeiro, 1951, Groundfloor

Das canoas has two floors: the upper floor has a open floor plan for living space and the lower floor is partitioned in to private rooms. On the upper floor, the majority of the walls are made of glass to make the space transparent to the outside environment. Niemeyer did not want any curtain for the space to interupt with the communication between the interior and exterior environment. The glass walls do not follow the cuvilinear shape of the roof, making the roof a floating element. The lower floor is a semi-basement. When people walk from the open living space to the lower floor, they can experience a sense of protection. Walls become solid, and windows bcome small. All these changes on the elements imply the design intension of the space to become a more cozy and protected shelter.

Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer

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Enterior Space (left) and fiction (right)

Sketch (Top) and fiction (Bottom)

Enterior Space (left) and fiction (right)

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Plan (Top) and fiction (Bottom)

Aerial View (left) and fiction (right)

Interior Space (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Zhu Cao

The most powerful element of the original Das Canoas House is the rock that embedded in the exterior wall. When first looking at the project, it is shocked the fact that the rock was the main part of the design intention. Although the whole project presented a quality of modernity, the integration of the the rock added the brutality and intimity to the nature. So this fiction comes up with the idea to remove the rock from the project, dispossessing the house from its soul. As the rock is removed from the project, the design intention is changed. Although the project is still pressented as a more typical modern house because of the formal purity, the essence of the idea that the nature can penetrate into the architecture is finally lost. The border between the exterior and interior space is completely altered and redefined.

Das Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer

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Contemporary architecture must be capable of responding to the changing needs of the contemporary era. Kiyonori Kikutake

Sky House

by Kiyonori Kikutake Otowa, Japan 1958-1980

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

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Kiyonori Kikutake

Module Unit

Sky House Collected Fictions

by Kiyonori Kikutake Otowa, Japan 1958-1980

Sky House was the house designed and built by the Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake (1928-2011) for himself in 1958. The project still stands out as a landmark to his long lasting architectural convictions. A founding individual of the Metabolist movement, Kikutake established the framework for a structural planning ready to characteristically give its own principles to development, and for new models of urban communities ready to create over new physical grounds. His own Sky-House is an elevated single volume that actually exemplifies both these key standards on a local scale.1 This project allowed him to test concepts of mutable structures using modern technologies and to develop his ideas of a plug-in unit. The house is a single large space—in reference to the 16 tatami-parlour of his family mansion—elevated above the recovering city. Arguing that the components most likely to change should be designed for ease of replacement, he distributed the service spaces around an open living space, which would be permanent. The house was a manifestation of his thoughts, cast in concrete.2

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1. 20th Century Retrospective, Japanese Architecture, Residential Sky House / Kiyonori Kikutake, January 20, 2016. https://archeyes.com/ sky-house-kiyonorikikutake/ 2. “The House that Used to Fly”, Arbitaire, #500, January 8, 2008. http://so-il.org/projects/ the-house-that-usedto-fly

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Collected Fictions

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Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake

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Collected Fictions

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Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake

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Collected Fictions

The house comprises of a single 10x10m concrete slab raised up on 4,5 m high pillars in pairs situated on every side of the slab, with a specific purpose to free the corners. The pillars additionally support the concrete rooftop. The architect’s refusal of functionalism is showed in an adaptable, open floor arrangement with a focal living space and benefit regions on the sides, which reviews traditional Japanese interiors.3 The home space is defined by the permanent spaces, which need not undergo changes, and temporary spaces capable of being changed, deleted, added, expanded or reduced in size. The latter, called “movenettes” control the relationship of the building with its surroundings. Among the changeable units are the children’s room, kitchen and bathroom. This change facilitates the idea of adapting the house to future needs.4

Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake

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3. Evolutionary Housescape: the Metabolist Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake (1958) December 12, 2013. http://socks-studio. com/2013/12/12/ evolutionary-housescapethe-metabolist-skyhouse-by-kiyonorikikutake-1958/ 4. Skyhouse http://en.wikiarquitectura. com/building/skyhouse/

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Collected Fictions

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Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake

Exterior photo (left) and fiction (right)

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Original exterior photo (up) and fiction (down)

Interior space (up) and fiction (down)

Model (up) and fiction (down)

Structure Axon (up) and fiction (down)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Shiyu Jin

The original house consists of a single 10x10m concrete slab raised up on 4 piers located on the central axe of each side, in order to free the corners. Instead of using 4 piers to support the slab, the fiction adopts 8 concrete columns. The intention is to reduce the sense of thick and weight of the original structure. In order to remain the idea that frees the corners of the house, the fiction arranges 2 columns in pair for each side of the slab and leave enough space to four turning corners. In this way, the fiction will provide a good view of the surroundings for inner living and further emphasize on the flexibility rather than megastructure aspect of Sky House.

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First floor plan (left) and fiction (right)

Ground floor plan (left) and fiction (right)

Sky House by Kiyonori Kikutake

The purpose of a house is to provide a good and comfortable life. It would be a mistake to place too much value on an exclusively decorative result. Be honest and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hide the materials you are using to build. Lina Bo Bardi

The Glass house

by Lina Bo Bardi Morumbi, SĂŁo Paulo Brasil 1914-1992

Collected Fictions

AAP College of Architecture, Art and Planning Cornell University

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Louis Kahn in NY, 1975. Photo by Ezra Stoller

Site Plan

The Glass House Collected Fictions

by Lina Bo Bardi Morumbi, São Paulo, Brasil 1914-1992

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Lina Bo Bardi was born in Rome in 1914. At the age of 32, in 1946, she escaped Fascist Italy for Brazil. She traveled with her husband, the art critic and collector Pietro Maria Bardi. Already a practicing architect, the very first thing she built in the foreign country was her own home, where she and her husband resided for 40 years. The house, Casa de Vidro in Morumbi, São Paulo, presents a dual condition regarding nature. First, it is built on slim pilotis as clear respect to the existing topography of the hill. Secondly, the notion of building nature and planting the trees. Bo Bardi’s expressed this dual notion by saying “This residence represents an attempt to arrive at a communion between nature and the natural order of things; I look to respect this natural order, with clarity, and never liked the closed house that turns away from the thunderstorm and the rain, fearful of all men”.1 Now, with the vast vegetation surrounding the house, pilotis and tree trunks are mixed (confused) achieving an incredible symbiotic relationship between “nature” and artificial.

1. https://hyperallergic. com/335348/lina-bobardis-glass-house-andthe-multiple-worlds-itcontains/ `

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Collected Fictions

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Moreover, the choose of concrete deepens the notion of temporality and nature. The concrete acts as noble material that as the time has passed it has developed some patina changing the texture are color. This â&#x20AC;&#x153;newâ&#x20AC;? texture resonates with the surroundings.

Glass House by Lina Bo Bardi

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Glass House by Lina Bo Bardi

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Glass House by Lina Bo Bardi

East facade, Photo by Leonardo Finotti,2014 (left) and fiction (right)

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Staircaise, Photo by IĂąigo Bujedo Aguirre, (left) and fiction (right)

Front view, Photo by XXXX,1975 (left) and fiction (right)

Interior Space, Photo by Leonardo Finotti,2014 (left) and fiction (right)

Collected Fictions

Appendix This project is a fiction by Pablo Zarama

This fiction transforms the original white plaster surface of the house into rough concrete. Additionally, within this new material, the central stair changed its nature and became a concrete monolith matching the material of the fiction house. The new material suggested and a small increase in the thickness of the floor slab.

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Original Cross Section (up) and fiction (down)